A Step-by-Step Guide: How to Make a Reel with Photos

When you want to show your friends you had a good time on your vacation or enjoyed a party or concert, Instagram provides a ready outlet. All you need are some good-looking photos and you can share every detail of your big event with your followers and get their feedback in real time. The worst-kept secret in the world is that most of us take photos primarily to be able to show them off on Instagram and impress the online audience.

There are multiple ways to post photos on Instagram, but perhaps the most effective one is to combine several of them and make your Reel go viral. Newcomers to this social network may not be aware of how simple this operation is, so they are still missing out on this feature. This article will try to show how to do it and provide a strong argument in favor of using Reels whenever you have great photos to showcase.

The Power of Visual Storytelling

One of the central advantages of Instagram over any competing social media is its firm focus on visually attractive content. People join this network with full awareness that it’s all about pictures and soon learn how to draw attention to their own content. The trick is to understand that pretty pictures are not enough – they need to tell a good story in order to bring you higher engagement and new followers.

The principle ‘show, don’t tell’ sums up this ethos in a succinct way and is a good reminder of how to communicate if you want to become an Instagram star. Using images instead of words allows you to draw the viewer into the situation you want to depict and visually demonstrate your central messages. Just saying ‘I am enjoying the view from my balcony’ carries little meaning if the recipient of the message can’t see that view for himself. Snapping a quick picture and sharing it on Instagram is a more immersive way to tell a story and it’s not a surprise that a huge number of people prefer to communicate through this medium.

What Are Instagram Reels and Why You Should Use Them?

Instagram is a platform built around visual storytelling and it provides its users with great mechanisms to broadcast their lives. One of the most powerful visual tools is named Reels, and it serves to create powerful multi-media posts that heavily rely on the visual dimension. Reels can include images, video, music, text, or other elements, so they can convey a lot of information as well as emotions. This is intentionally a short format, with maximum length of just 60 seconds, so Reels are very easy to consume while idly browsing the network.

Whenever you have more to say than can fit into a single post or a single image, you can create a Reel and express your ideas more vividly. Reels represent the next step in the evolution of social media communication channels, and they tend to draw more attention than regular Instagram posts. Any member of this network who aims for a higher follower count and more influence should incorporate Reels into his arsenal of expressive tools and use them at least occasionally to launch a big story with a few great photos. For those who create content for a living, Reels are an indispensable tool that helps to derive maximum value from your personal photos and produce dynamic content at a reasonable cost.

How to Make a Reel with Photos – Step-by-Step Guide

While Reels are primarily designed as a vehicle for video, it’s possible to populate them with still images and add text descriptions and/or music to make them more expressive. In this way, you can combine different media by yourself and construct a lively story that contains enough eye candy to cause people to notice. In a technical sense, this is not very hard to do and virtually anyone can put together a great-looking Reel using mostly personal photos as source material. We will guide you through the process and help you utilize this multimedia format to the maximum.

Step 1. After logging in to your Instagram account, tap on the + shaped icon and activate the Reels option

Step 2. This will take you to the Reels editor, where you can find another + shaped icon to click on

Step 3. This action allows you to choose the images from your Photo album to use in the Reel

Step 4. Determine for how long each photo will be shown on the screen, and add music to your Reel

Step 5. Click on Preview to see how a Reel would look, and add effects, text, or visuals as needed

Step 6. When you are happy with your Reel, hit the Publish button and make it public

Frequently Asked Questions about Instagram Reels

The number of pictures you can combine into a single Reel is limited to 50 at the most. Considering that maximum duration of a Reel is just 1 minute, it’s difficult to imagine that you would ever need to include more than 50 photos to tell your story, as it takes a few seconds for the image to be visually registered by the viewer.

Just like with any other type of Instagram content, the visibility of Reels depends on your privacy settings. If you are using the public setting, any Instagram member could open, share, or comment on your Reel. On the other hand, privately posted Reels are visible only to your approved contacts. You could also make your Instagram Reels visible on Facebook if you so desire.

The interface for posting a new Reel is very simple and you can rush through the process within a minute or two when you are in a hurry. However, given the number and quality of creative tools at your disposal, it may be wise to invest 30-60 minutes to create a truly breathtaking Reel from photos and only post it once it looks truly amazing.

Final Words

Combining multiple photos within an Instagram Reel is a proven method for boosting engagement and gaining new followers. Since this is a very simple task, even new members can learn to make truly eye-catching Reels in a relatively short time. After adding captions, visual effects, and some music, your multimedia clip could have all the properties of a viral post. The range of possibilities is practically unlimited, so you should experiment with different settings and edit reels on Instagram until you get something special. Your life is unique and it deserves to be shared in all of its beauty – and Instagram Reels are just the right tool to let you do that.

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